


Of Pain and Comfort

by ArthurSaxon



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/F, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-30
Updated: 2017-01-30
Packaged: 2018-09-20 22:20:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 687
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9518504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArthurSaxon/pseuds/ArthurSaxon
Summary: In the event when Hermione was captured and tortured in the Malfoy Manor, she met someone familiar in the cell.





	

“Send her back.”

 

She staggered into the cell, hearing the faint ‘click’ as a guard behind locked the door. The wicked woman had drained every drop of energy inside her body using the spell Crucio, leaving her twisting on the ground, screaming under the excruciating pain. Her will power was the last barrier between Bellatrix Lestrange and The Secret, and Hermione determined to guard it even it woud cost her own life.

 

Reeling, she stumbled and hit the wall. Her knees were weak, and her mind was in a semi-conscious state. Somewhere near her temple, a blood vessel was throbbing rhythmically as if it was going to burst at any given moment. Her heart rate was abnormally high, and something in her chest burnt with seething pain – a natural result after subjecting to such frequent and intense Unforgivable Curse.

 

“Are you okay?” A voice called, and Hermione looked up. From her blurred vision, she could faintly make out a fuzzy figure of a girl with blonde hair curling into messy, loose waves.

 

“Luna.” She called out the name after digging out this information under a piles of scrambled thoughts. Luna smiled, but her eyes were sad.

 

“I heard what she had done to you, Hermione.” Luna said, moving closer from the other half of the cell, “You were brave.”

 

Now she was just about half a metre away from Hermione. Her smooth, white skin now lost its healthy radiation, turning into sickly yellow. Bruises and scars sprawled across her face, yet her eyes were still limpid, bright and blue. She wore her usual dreamy expression, and _oh_ , Hermione thought, _hope has yet left her_.

 

Gently, Luna raised her finger and brushed against Hermione’s face. Her touch was warm, and oddly electrifying. _Certainly, Luna has some way to cure people just by touching them, or is that another secret ability invented by her father?_   A thought bubbled out from the surface of subconscious and Hermione captured it.   _No, I must be delirious._  She rebuked herself.

 

Now that Hermione thought of it, how effective misery could alter relationships. Back in Hogwarts, she was the one who chose to ignore Luna, or view her as what other had called her, ‘Loony’. Indeed, Luna’s words sometimes implied insanity, but many occasions have proven that they also contained truth. Luna was a factor of pure unpredictability.

 

Luna’s long, pale and elegant finger now reached Hermione’s temple, slowly messaging it. The violent throbbing died down slowly. Pain dissipated gradually, and reason surfaced from the veil of darkness.

 

“Thank you.” Hermione heard herself murmured. She brushed away a lock of greasy brown hair and blinked. Luna was right in front of her, her eyes speaking of rare clarity.

 

“You are welcome.” She replied politely, and put her palm on Hermione’s forehead to check her temperature. Hermione closed her eyes to contain her tears. She had not cried since she erased her parents’ memory.

 

Still tears rolled down her cheeks. Fatigue took over, when the burning pain inside her chest quenched by Luna’s comfort. _All these suffering_ ,  she thought. In despair she glimpsed a more terrifying figure lurking in the near future, reeking of hunger and death. Her doom.

 

Suddenly she felt a pair of arms around her shoulder. Luna hugged her! In surprise Hermione opened her eyes and saw the other girl smiling encouragingly, eyes shining behind her damaged vessel.

 

“It’d pass,” the other girl said, “because I have chased the Wrackspurts away. You know they will affect your mind.”

 

For a moment, Hermione wanted to argue if Wrackspurts truly existed, but she swallowed her words back. _Maybe for once, Luna was right. Because, in such moment, logic and reason - her fundamental ways of processing information and decision making - may not work at all. Only faith and instinct will govern the mind._  

 

So Hermione lifted the corner of her mouth, her lips curling into something sweet and warm. She held the other girl closer and tighter. Maybe there were Wrackspurts which caused that transient depression, but it did not matter anymore. Because, for now, they had each other, and that was more than enough.

**Author's Note:**

> First attempt in writing HG/LL relationships. I am a non-English speaker, so if you spot any error, please tell me. Much appreciated.


End file.
